I thought it was a solid first attempt. It’s a new format and they’re still figuring it out. You could really see how they were struggling to get some of the TV coverage and boy did those moto guys struggle. I think 3 years from now it’ll be much better.
IMO keeping it simple was the right move for the first one. As they iron out the kinks I think you’ll see more climbing, more gravel and more technical sections.
Get in touch with the UCI, please. They are in need of a route planner. The best their current route team could do were alleys, dike trails, utility roads, and driveways.
Your pics are at least commuter roads.
What are commuter roads?
I think that it will change based on part of the World etc. One would assume next year in Australia it’ll be a chunkier gravel. That’s me assuming based off of what Gravel roads mean to me here in NZ and based on posts from @GPLama Posting gravel pictures on Strava I think it’s going to be a big rectangle 
.
I appreciate the course didn’t align with expectations based off of say Unbound, but we don’t have to pigeon hole a discipline. That’s the beauty of something like “Gravel” it can essentially be anything from a rail trail, to a single track through the forest. It’ll be cool if it changes year to year.
and who cares about a UCI Gravel WC anyway? Just like Kona for triathlon, there is Unbound for gravel. And there will always be Strade Bianche 
That’s true, I would’ve like to see more climbing and singletrack and less tarmac.
Like you said gravel makes for an open idea on course planning. I definitely feel they made it safer this year to see what the response is from everyone.
It’s fun to see the growth of gravel however people feel about it. Now we’ll see if they make next years epic with a 2 mile hike a bike section 
joking because I don’t see many WT riders being down with that.
I was really excited for a bit when Matt Beers was out with the leaders. Go the mtbers
Variety .
(I love the mystique of Kona and massively regret not going when I was younger, but I hate the idea of a self-proclaimed World Championship)
That’s also like saying ‘we’ve got a Tour of Flanders, why do we need a road worlds?’. There’s room for both. Hopefully the interest this generates will spill over to Unbound and get it decent coverage too.
It’s the wrong Gravel Words, Grommit!
As an ex-pat living in the U.S I feel similarly about the World Series.
but if you ask a rider, where he’d rather win, would it be Tour of Flanders or worlds?
With road worlds it’s the same as with the gravel worlds today. People always complain about the course. Just a sprinters course is what you often hear. Today the race should generate nice TV pictures, this was clearly the goal. One could have found a course through the corn fields of Northern Italy to make it more “original” but I guess these drone shots of the medievial town setting is more appealing to a wider audience.
What bikes did the Alpecin boys (MVDP and Vermeesch) use?
I think many will say Flanders, but not everyone can win Flanders - the Worlds course changes and offers other riders a chance. And of course you get the rainbow jersey for a year, but that won’t work so well with gravel.
Thank you.
Short version:
Canyon sponsored: Ultimate
Specialized: Roubaix
I got.the feeling the organisors expected a fairly large front group, so thought following them would be enough. They didn’t expect a small break going early that would stay away the whole race on a flat course. Also it seemed a bit hazardous for motorbikes in places, maybe more so in between larger groups of riders. The coverage didn’t seem to have been thought through in detail.
I would have liked to see more of the chasers, of course but I also thought it was a shame that there was no coverage at all of the masters racers. They praised the inclusive spirit of gravel, but bar a few lapped riders, all you got to see were a handful of WT stars.
The other UCI WTF was putting the road pro’s at the front, and the folks who qualified via gravel events at the back of the pack to start. This needs to be reversed in the future. For MTB & cross, if you don’t have points because you aren’t doing the series, you start at the back. Why was this any different?
Utility roads are there to serve a specific purpose. Such as fire control access…or in the case of this race, agricultural (tractors, sprayers, harvesters) access. Utility roads aren’t usually maintained. If it rains, you probably wouldn’t drive your car down a utility roads.
Commuter gravel roads are there primarily so residents can commute to and from their homes. Commuter gravel roads are graded regularly and periodically get new gravel dumped on them.
If you see grass growing down the center of a road, that’s not a commuter road.
